First things first, the central focus of this story is "the Kid" and how he came to be. Who is he? Where did he come from? It turns out that he actually answered the question waaay back in the first episode. He's Henry Deaver (if the episode's title didn't spoil that fact, the episode's recap of the plot so far will pretty much give it away.) Now I had this spoiled by reading both TvTropes and Wikipedia. I can't help but wonder if that reveal line would have packed more punch if I wasn't aware of it ahead of time. Some twists still work, but this one didn't put a whole lot of emphasis on it, so maybe they weren't banking on that being such a mind-blower.
More specifically, he's the Henry Deaver of an alternate reality. We see this through a flashback that accounts for most of the episode. As with any alternate reality or timeline, there are differences to be sure, but the similarities were the more fascinating part. Heck, even the way this episode plays out is very similar to how the show's story has unfolded over in the "Prime" universe.
Both involved someone deemed "the Kid" (this time, it's young Henry of our world, explaining what happened when he went missing as a child) who was trapped in a cage for years as a result of being thought a devil and was only discovered after their captor killed themselves. Juniper Hill burns down both times and it seems the woods and the Schisma still play a role in things. It's trippy and intriguing just how much these two universes mirror each other on so many levels.
On other fronts, it was nice to see Skarsgard actually get a chance to converse and show emotions. Here we see him happy, well adjusted, and easy going. He's married and is even planning on building a family. It's a stark contrast to what we've seen in earlier episodes. Hopefully we'll see more of that in the next episode.
Speaking of, there are still a few questions to be answered, leaving viewers some incentive to tune in for the finale. Still, this did provide a lot of information and did it in an engaging way. It managed to cram a lot into just one hour and that's not easy. This easily could have come off as clunky or out of left field, but instead, it worked very well. It's definitely a highlight for the season as a whole in my opinion. Maybe not as good as "The Queen", but still pretty impressive in its own right. The finale has quite a bit of momentum built up, hopefully it can follow through.
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